Benefits of Crop Rotation on Climate Resilience and Its Prospects in China

Abstract

In the context of climate change, increases in extreme weather have caused a series of problems, severely reduced crop yield, and caused a loss of agricultural cultivation. In addition, because of the high economic benefits, continuous cropping has become more popular but it leads to higher land-use intensity in production systems, aggravating the problems of extreme climate and seriously influencing China’s agricultural production and ecological environment. From this, the importance of improvements to cropping systems’ resilience to climate change is now much clearer than before. Crop rotation is an important tool for improving the climate resilience of the agricultural production system and effectively solving the shortcomings of the current continuous crop methodology. Crop rotation is indispensable in many national strategies, including food security, ecological environment development, and rural revitalization. This study aimed to promote the improvement of the crop rotation system in China and aimed to play a significant role in guiding China towards the large-scale development of crop rotation. This literature review shows that crop rotation can effectively enhance climate resilience and reduce the fragility of agricultural cropping systems. It then delves into the origin and development of crop rotation, and summarizes the characteristics of crop rotation. In view of the neglect of ecological benefits in China’s agricultural development, this article puts forward three suggestions: first, developing crop rotation technology based on local conditions; second, paying attention to the ecological benefits of crop rotation subsidies, followed by implementing appropriate and flexible subsidy policies; and, finally, carrying out rational evaluations and policy adjustment of crop rotation practices.

Efecto del establecimiento de sistemas de rotación para el cultivo de la papa sobre las características químicas y físicas del suelo

“…El mismo comportamiento se presentó en la capacidad de retención de agua (CRA), aunque se presentaron valores bajos menores al 15 % (Montenegro González y Malagón Castro, 1990). Se coincide con Yu et al (2022), quienes afirman que la rotación de cultivos genera un mayor almacenamiento de agua en el suelo y mayor eficiencia en el uso del agua en los cultivos. En los valores de densidad aparente y real no se presentaron alteraciones al implementar los tres tratamientos de rotación.…”

“…La inclusión de diferentes tipos de cultivos es el mejor y más efectivo control de enfermedades y plagas, puesto que puede romper los ciclos de vida de insectos y patógenos presentes en el área (Tariq et al, 2019;Wilches Ortiz, 2019). La magnitud de la mejora del rendimiento y otros beneficios asociados de la rotación de cultivos puede variar, pero sin duda, en los escenarios actuales y de cambio climático, tienden a resolver problemas como el estancamiento del rendimiento, el agotamiento de los recursos y la reducción de la dependencia de insumos sintéticos (Yu et al, 2022).…”

Evaluation of Cropland System Resilience to Climate Change at Municipal Scale Through Robustness, Adaptability, and Transformability: A Case Study of Hubei Province, China

“…The implementation of the policies has objectively improved CSRCC but has not directly incorporated the resilience into the institutional system. Moreover, the weak agricultural infrastructure and risk resistance of the cropland system have not been fundamentally changed in China (Qin and Wu, 2021;Yu et al, 2022). This study suggests that the resilienceoriented policies should be proposed to cope with a range of future disturbances and shocks from environment and socioeconomic changes.…”

Adoption of Conservation Agriculture as a Driver of Sustainable Farming: Opportunities, Constraints, and Policy Issues

“…Similarly, crop rotation reduces climate vulnerability and improves soil health by reducing herbivores, increasing yields, and generating high economic benefits. It also provides a more stable planting system in extreme weather conditions [51][52][53]. Likewise, CA improves soil fertility [54], reduces soil erosion [55], improves water filtration and retention, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions [56], all of which contribute to the farming system's high environmental sustainability.…”